Of Seaweed and Sunsets
by pokefreak59
Summary: Being dragged along to a place you hate isn't always bad, sometimes something interesting can happen. Modern world AU...sort of? First person Hinata view


**My entry for a contest a number of years back on another site. I never got around to fixing it up and posting it on this site however. Made a few changes and fine-tuned it a bit...it's a bit better than the original.**

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Crystal clear waters, sandy white shores, cool refreshing breeze softly blowing in your face…the beach is nothing like television and movies make it out to be at all.

I'm here at this beach because my friends talked me into it. "Come on Hinata it will be fun, it's the last day before school, we'll all hit the beach and have a blast!" I muttered to myself as I dug my feet deep into the warm sand and a salty breeze blew a tuft of hair away from my face. "This beach is horrible." I said as I looked over the seaweed infested shore and groaned in disgust. I looked out into the water and saw my friends, Sakura, Ino, Choji, Tenten, and Kiba all tossing a beach ball back and forth, swimming, laughing and having a great time. I had gone out into the water earlier but with the amount of seaweed and small schools of fish nibbling at my legs it was impossible for me to enjoy it. I had put on a long loose blue short over my bikini so that guys would stop ogling my body, which is another reason in itself of why I don't like this place. I sighed as I bought my knees close to my chest and looked up at the setting sun and smiled a bit. "If nothing else, at least I can enjoy this view" I said as I wiggled my toes and smiled to myself.

"Beautiful, huh?" A voice said from behind me, which startled me and made me jolt up a bit. I turned to see who it was and saw a boy around my age looking down on me. He had spiky blonde hair, sharp blue eyes and had three whisker like markings on both his cheeks. He wore baggy orange trunks and a loose plain black t-shirt. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized with a slight frown. "Mind if I sit here for a bit?" He asked. I shook my head and repositioned myself down on my blue towel and he took his seat on the sand beside me. "Are you here alone?"

Again I shook my head, and sat in the same position as before. Why is he here? I'm not the best at meeting new people. I'm reserved and quiet person with a stuttering complex.

"Are those your friends over there?" He stretched his arm out, pointing to my group, and I nodded. "How come you aren't there with them?"

I gulped as I tried forcing myself to answer. "I…I hate the beach." I answered and took a quick glance at him. He was smiling up at the sky and closed his eyes as a pleasant breeze blew our direction. I felt my face heat up and looked away. Great…now that I noticed he's cute it's going to be that much harder to talk.

"So I'm guessing you were talked into coming here like me?" He chuckled "I'm not too fond of the beach either, it's too messy and hot."

I looked around and didn't see anyone else other than us and my friends. "W-W-"

"Where are my friends?" He asked, turning to face me. "Don't laugh but we're actually playing man-hunt…which is basically hide-and-seek, and I'm hiding." He grinned ear to ear. "Kiddish I know, but playing in a place like this, especially now that it's getting dark is really fun."

I held back a laugh as I covered my mouth with my hands.

"Hey I said not to laugh!" He frowned as he softly pushed me to the right. "Why not join us? It's better with more people, and it beats watching your friends have fun as you sit here miserable wanting to go home."

"T-That's true." I said softly. "I…I don't know." I said as I looked down at my legs and picked sand with my toes. "I...I'm not very talkative…if you haven't noticed by now." I told him as I twiddled my thumbs, still not looking at him.

"I can talk enough for the two of us." He stood up and held his hand out towards me. "What do you say? I looked up into his eyes and felt my heart begin to race and my face start to heat up again. As I began to lift my hand I heard someone yell from my right. When I looked it was someone racing towards us running at us full speed. The next thing I know the blonde boy grabbed my hand and yanked me up. "C'mon we gotta get going!" He laughed as he sprint away, pulling me away. I moved my legs as fast as I could, trying to keep up with him so I wouldn't stumble and trip. "Ain't going to catch me!" He yelled back at the boy behind us.

As I looked back, I saw the boy slowing down and stop to catch his breath. "H-He stopped." I told the blonde in front of me but he just continued to lead me on down the beach…did he hear me?

After another minute of running, he let go of my hand and went up the little wooden bridge that connected to parking lot to the actual beach, and jumped into the thicket under the bridge and told me to get jump down, and I did as I was told. "That was my friend, Ukitsu. He must have been found and went looking for me."

I sat down cross legged in the dirt next to him and tried to look out to the beach, but the branches and bush were so thick I could barely see what was outside the thicket. "Oh..." Was all I managed to say.

He sat down right next to me, seeing as how there wasn't much space. "Sorry, but you were taking a while and I just sped up your decision." He said smiling again.

"Umm…I...uhh…" I stammered as I tried to look for something to say. I bit my lip and stared down at the ground. Here's the part where he regrets having me here and the awkward silence begins.

"You really are shy aren't you?" He asked as he scratched his hair. "I find that super cute." He told me as he fixed his position, bringing one knee up to his chest.

My eyes widened as I tensed up, clenched my shirt and felt my face burn up.

"N-not to say that I think you're c-cute!" He said quickly "But I don't think that you're ugly…what I mean is…uhh…" He stuttered trying to fix his sentence.

A laugh burst out of me instantly breaking the very brief awkward moment that just passed. "I'm sorry. It's just that I'm always the one stuttering, and it's funny to see someone else do it."

He looked at me with his bright blue eyes and smiled. "At least that got you talking." He raised an eyebrow. "So what school do you go to?"

"Konohigh, I'll be a senior starting tomorrow." I answered. "W-What about you?" I looked at his face, which was hard to see as only a few rays of light managed to break through all the thick branches.

"Heck if I know," he scoffed "I just moved here last week. My parents are taking care of everything."

"If…if you just moved here and you already made friends?" I asked him, and then realized I mess the up the wording.

"Nah, those are my friends from my old town, they came here this weekend to see my new house and so we could all spend one last day together before school." He crossed his legs and looked at me. "They all agreed to go to the beach since it's so close, but like I told you, I don't like it."

"I went along because all my friends wanted to and they talked me into it." I smiled and brushed a strand of hair from my face. Somehow, he got me talking slowly but surely. He asked me questions like what kinds of music do I like, and my favorite movies and actors. He wanted to know fun things to do in town. The only place he saw that was interesting was the skate park. I told him about the laser tag arena, mall, and some nice restaurants. Something about him made me feel comfortable enough to want to continue talking. I have no idea how long we there in that bush and to be honest, I didn't care. This was the first time in my seventeen years that I was coming out of my shell and having an enjoyable conversation with someone...and a complete stranger at that.

"So…" He started "you want to head out of here? I'm starting to think that we're not going to get found." He looked up at the bridge and smiled. He seemed almost proud of the hiding spot.

"I d-don't think so either." I caught myself staring at him for too long.

He got up and brushed of some dirt off his clothes and jumped up on the wooden bridge. He held out his hand to help me up. I reached out my hand as he pulled me up…perhaps a bit too strong as I practically flew up and ended up crashing into him and we ended up on the floor, with me on top of him, my chest against his and staring into each other's eyes. "My bad, guess I don't know my own strength." He said with a half-smile.

"Uh huh…" I felt my heart pounding against my chest like a jackhammer. I've seen this in enough movies to know what's going to happen next! The only problem is that I've never kissed anyone before…and my first kiss would be with this boy that I don't even know? I licked my lips quickly and prepared for it. As our lips grew closer and closer together I began to tremble with excitement. This is it!

"Hinata!"

I heard my name called out from the shore and looked to my left towards the voice, feeling a kiss on my cheek. My eyes widened as I jumped back and sat up.

"That is you!" My friend Sakura greeted me as she walked towards us. "Hmm? Who's this?" She asked, referring to the boy who just kissed my cheek. "We're leaving now, Kiba already got all our stuff. Let's go, we're going to go eat, we all worked up an appetite." She told me as she helped me up and dragged me away to the parking area.

I looked back over my shoulder to the boy, disappointed over what just happened. I saw him forcing a smile as he waved bye.

Everyone back at the car had changed into dry clothes and had gotten into the car. As me and Sakura were changing in a nearby bush away from the boys she turned to me with a raised eyebrow and asked. "Who was that?"

My heart fluttered a bit as I answered her. "Some random boy that decided to talk to me while you and everyone were in the water." I told her as I pulled my jeans up. "We got to talking and one thing led to another and we-"

"Don't tell me you were making out with him!" She gasped.

I covered her mouth and shushed her. "D-don't go saying that out loud!" I hissed. "And no I didn't we just ended up talking for a while…and we…almost k-kissed."

"I interrupted?" She muffled through my hand. "Shorry."

I took my hand off and sighed. "It's alright." I said as I rubbed my cheek, at least I still got a kiss.

"You got his number though so you can meet up with him later." Sakura smiled as she put on her bra and tank top. I said nothing and stood in silence. "Don't tell me…you didn't?" She asked disappointed. She saw me slap my face and whimper. "Oh Hinata…you really are something else. Go back to the beach and get some kind of information! Hurry!" She ordered me and I ran back to try to find him.

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I yawned as I stretched in my seat the next day as my homeroom teacher was explaining the classroom rules, not like they are any different from any other teachers for the last thirteen years. I put my head down and closed my eyes as I thought back to last night.

After I raced back to the beach, I looked out over the shore but it was already dark, and couldn't see him anywhere. I checked back in the thicket to see if he had hid back in there to no avail. Everyone was in a rush to leave so I didn't have much time to look around. I re-imagined the scene that led up to the almost kiss. I thought of how it would have felt, how long it would have lasted, and…

There was a knock on the door classroom door. Someone was late and had been locked out. I gulped as a knot formed in my stomach. What if it was the boy? He did say moved into town, and didn't know the name of the school he was going to be attending. It's possible that he got here late and didn't know how to find the classes. I held my breath and curled my fingers as the teacher walked over and opened the door. I sighed when I saw a petite girl walked in the room and apologized to the teacher for being late, she had trouble finding the classroom.

I sighed again, louder, as I put my head down on the desk and whimpered. I never even got his name…

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 **Contest was scrapped by the way, but no big deal. I had fun writing it and gave me chance to work on my writing skillz. Any and all critique is welcome.**


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